Variant Cover of ‘Batman Who Laughs’ #6 Homages ‘Batman: Hush’

Article by Adam Poncharoensub

Easily one of the memorable characters to come out of Dark Nights: Metal was The Batman Who Laughs. A twisted version of Batman who was exposed to the same chemicals that transformed the Joker, giving a truly chilling amalgamation of the two characters. I remember when I came upon the design myself and felt the goosebumps rise up all over my body. The breakout character was eventually given his own mini-series written by Scott Snyder and pencilled by Jock. It became one of the highest-selling DC titles this year, which may have caused DC to extend the series for two more issues. Either that or Snyder simply has a longer story to tell. Check out Steve J. Ray’s review of issue 5 here.

The now-penultimate issue of Batman Who Laughs is out in June and we have a pretty cool variant cover for it. Created for the online book retailer Unknown Comics, artist Mico Suayan and colorist Romulo Fajardo, Jr. are giving us a fun homage to Jim Lee’s Batman: Hush.

A Proper Homage

Suayan shared the colored variant on Twitter, which you can see below:

The variant cover pays tribute to the trade paperback cover for Batman: Hush. It splits the cover between our Batman and the Batman Who Laughs in the same way Jim Lee did for Batman and Hush. It even features most of the same characters. I love the inking and shading in this cover. It somehow also manages to be more photorealistic than Lee’s original cover. I also really dig their take on Catwoman, she just seems more edgy and in line with the atmosphere for this mini-series. Collectors, I think you’re gonna wanna grab this one when it comes out.

Here’s Lee’s cover for comparison:

Be sure to grab The Batman Who Laughs #6 when it hits shelves on June 12.

Adam Poncharoensub is a blogger, movie critic, and Born-Again Batman fan. When he’s not chained to his desk writing, he likes to spend his days spreading the gospel of the Dark Knight in the treacherous suburbs of Miami or working under Dropping Loads Productions, where he co-hosts a comedy podcast and produces sketches.